President's Message -- Spring 2015

Spring has sprung! It is the time of year I prefer most - the grass smells fresh and the flowers and trees begin their celebration that frigid weather is finally over. Winter doldrums recede and Washington is still plotting to reduce reimbursement for providers. Some things change with the arrival of spring and some stay the same.

Spring also brings an end to our HFMA chapter year, which culminates with our Annual Meeting April 22nd and 23rd when we elect and install our 2016 Officers and Board members. We also recognize our Chapter volunteers at this event. They work diligently during the year to serve our members by providing great member communication, organizing timely and relevant education programs, securing corporate sponsors so registration fees can remain low and promoting professional excellence through HFMA National certification.

HFMA National monitors each chapter through a set of metrics that are updated the 10th of each month. I am proud to tell you that on the 4/10/2015 Progress Report, the Sunflower Chapter led the nation in education hours per member at 27.7 hours. National also monitors each chapter through a member satisfaction survey that is completed in October. Our members rated the chapter high on education, topics, speakers and program location however, overall satisfaction scores were lower than the previous year. The decrease was primarily due to the desire for improvements to the newsletter, website, networking opportunities and coverage of state and regional issues. Jenny Knudson has been working to obtain current information in order to bring the website content up-to-date. She has done a great job and deserves special thanks for her dedication to our website. The chapter newsletter is also undergoing changes after being moved to a new platform last year. Terry Pound, Nikki Esquibel and Patrick Whisennanad continue to work on formatting and design of the newsletter. We recently added a new committee to focus on networking opportunities in a relaxed atmosphere and I am looking forward to participating in their activities. The program committee headed by Laraine Gengler and Tish Hollingsworth continually search for educational opportunities that will provide benefit to our membership. As always, the ability to volunteer in any committee is open to all members and we would welcome your fresh perspective.

I appreciate the opportunity I've had to serve you this past year. Bill Lane will take over as President on May 1st and I look forward to serving with him as he continues "Leading the Change".